Week-in-Review Video
A message from your Senator
Constituents and friends,
On Tuesday, Derek Chauvin was found guilty, on all three charges, of murdering George Floyd. While I was incredibly relieved by that verdict, it’s clear that we have an enormous amount of police reform and racial equity work to do in Minnesota in order to ensure that our public safety system truly and consistently values Black life. Daunte Wright’s funeral yesterday was a tragic reminder of that fact, and I remain supportive of the call from my colleagues in the Senate POCI (People of Color and Indigenous) Caucus that we suspend the Legislature’s ongoing budgetary negotiations until both the House and Senate have heard and adopted several specific and urgent police accountability measures.
This week, we continued debating Senate omnibus budget bills in advance of the conference committee negotiation process between the House, Senate, and Governor, in which small groups of legislators and executive branch staff will iron out the many differences between the House and Senate versions of each bill. The Environment, Legacy Finance, Housing, Education, and Transportation omnibus bills all passed the Senate this week, mostly with the full support of the Republican caucus (they controlled the creation of each bill) and the full opposition of the DFL caucus (with the exception of the one or two DFL Senators who needed to support each bill to guarantee themselves a seat on the respective conference committees).
Our long floor debates provided several opportunities for me to speak about important issues this week. My main focus was the Transportation omnibus debate yesterday, when myself and the other three DFL members of the Senate Transportation Committee introduced several amendments (all of which our Republican colleagues rejected) that highlighted major issues with the bill and described the many areas of significant need that aren’t being addressed.
One of my own amendments would have made expired tabs and windshield obstructions a secondary offense, thus eliminating the ability of police officers to pull drivers over for them – you can watch my comments in the video above. Several recent studies in Minnesota and nationwide (including this one) have show that these “pretextual offenses,” as they’re known, are disproportionately used to pull over Black drivers for further investigation (they were the justification for the traffic stops of Philando Castile and Daunte Wright, to name just two). These offenses are not serious enough for a traffic stop, especially given their heavily-racialized nature, and can be better-handled through a ticketing process similar to the enforcement of parking laws.
One of my other amendments to the Transportation omnibus bill would have deleted the provision that requires counties, instead of the state, to pay the operating costs of Light Rail Transit and its associated infrastructure. This is an unnecessary, unfair, and abrupt funding shift that is opposed by the Association of Minnesota Counties, the Metropolitan Council, Governor Walz, and several groups of city and county engineers. You can watch my comments in the video above.
I also spoke during debate on the Environment omnibus bill earlier this week, in opposition to a section of the bill that limits the Pollution Control Agency’s ability to regulate manure application during winter months – you can watch my comments in the video below. This may seem like a niche issue, but increased manure application in the winter (when soil is far less permeable) will significantly increase manure runoff, and thus significantly increase the nitrate levels in our water as well as our soil. Consuming too much nitrate is proven to cause colon cancer and birth defects, among other issues – this is absolutely not something to take lightly.
Community News & Events
The Minnetonka City Council will meet virtually on Monday, April 26 at 6:30 pm. The agenda and viewing information can be found here.
The Plymouth City Council will meet virtually twice on Tuesday, April 27 – a special session at 5:30 pm to discuss Highway 55 Bus Rapid Transit, followed by a regular council meeting at 7:30 pm. The agendas and viewing information can be found, respectively, here and here.
COVID-19 Hotlines
- Hotline for health questions: 612-201-3920 or 1-800-657-3903 (staffed 6 am to 8 pm daily)
- Hotline for school and childcare questions: 651-297-1304 or 1-800-657-3504 (staffed 7 am to 7 pm daily)
- Questions for workers and employers: 651-259-7114 or 800-657-3858
- Hotline if you experience or witness bias and/or discrimination: 1-833-454-0148 (staffed Monday-Friday 8 am to 4:30 pm)
Please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time with input, questions, or concerns!
